The Sandbox is one of the most popular blockchain games, striving to create its own metaverse. In this virtual world, users can own land, use various items, and interact with each other.
Not just that, but all game transactions appear on the Ethereum blockchain. Users are incentivized to participate or potentially create and sell their own digital assets on the game’s marketplace.
The Sandbox, as a blockchain game, has been in development for several years. While it is one of the most popular titles, it is not the only one of its kind. The term “metaverse” has become a mainstream buzzword. The potential to create a global virtual world has attracted many high-profile companies. The Sandbox shows how such a digital world can be run.
In this guide:
- The rise of metaverse
- Prospects for the metaverse
- The metaverse in 2022 and beyond it
- The evolution
- What is The Sandbox?
- Core features
- Tokenization in The Sandbox
- Comparison with competitors
- Roadmap and development history
- What is LAND?
- What is ASSETS?
- The SAND token
- Tokenomics
- Price and price predictions
- Should you buy SAND?
- How to buy SAND
- How to stake SAND
- The Sandbox metaverse holds enormous potential
- Frequently asked questions
The rise of metaverse
Many classic sci-fi productions focused on the idea of virtual worlds. They did so because the concept must have seemed both exotic and entirely far-fetched. These topics appeared in many Hollywood movies only a few years ago. But, then, as more people started considering the prospect, it was clear that humanity was already halfway there.
This leads us towards the much-talked-about concept of the “metaverse.” In essence, the metaverse is supposed to be a digital world with features that humans can interact with, just as they would in the real world. Is this realistic? A recent study found that internet users, on average, spend almost seven hours online every day.
The metaverse is an immersive digital alternative to the real world. It is thought of as a place where virtual avatars work, have hobbies, shop, or play together. It also allows them to interact in online communities and explore digital spaces. When Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms Inc, the term “metaverse” officially entered mainstream usage. It largely exists only as a concept. However, many of its characteristics are already in use, albeit at a micro-level.
Both industry veterans and casual observers remain highly invested in the concept. This is despite the fact that the companies involved in building the metaverse claim it will take many years to realize. For example, the reality-enhancement potential needs to be built with VR augmentation devices. Furthermore, there will be a slight transition from the current methods of using the internet. In many ways, the metaverse is an attempt to predict the future of the internet.
Prospects for the metaverse
The Metaverse allows content creators to connect with their audiences in a new way. This opens up huge opportunities for monetization via NFTs, digital merchandise, and many other avenues. The Metaverse’s most common means of payment are virtual currencies. This is the reason why the metaverse and blockchain technology seem intrinsically linked.
The concept of the metaverse has already attracted wide mainstream attention. The current goal is to start further proving its real-life application. There is headway in a number of ways. All the companies that will want to work within this space hire experienced personnel. Crypto-experts are among those scouted by important companies.
The metaverse in 2022 and beyond it
The big industry players are making large investments. Big-name companies as diverse as Microsoft, or SoftBank are acquiring platforms and talent that will allow them to build their own version of the metaverse. Microsoft, for example, has invested billions of dollars already in these endeavors.
Finally, these companies need to showcase their innovations to the public. Nvidia’s Omniverse Enterprise or Meta’s Horizon Workrooms are showcasing the potential of work-related digital collaboration. AltspaceVR caters to people who will want to experience live events, such as concerts, in the digital world. And, even fashion companies are incentivized to create NFT versions of their clothes for the digital world.
Can this merely be a trend that will soon be forgotten? Anything is possible. However, it may pay to check out the opinion of grizzled experts. Bill Gates, for example, believes that the public is already getting used to various facets of these experiments. He reckons that in only a few years’ time, the metaverse will be a full-fledged reality.
The evolution
The Sandbox, in many ways, can be seen as a coming together of a number of ideas popular in the digital world. It mixes modern gaming concepts with the play-to-earn model of blockchain games. Special interest is also paid to its link to the highly anticipated potential of the metaverse. In other words, the company behind The Sandbox, is looking to get early on the action of these.
Their interest in, at least, one of these topics is not new. In 2012, a company known as Animoca Brands began developing a game. It was supposed to mimic the highly popular title of Minecraft. Fans of the aforementioned game showed an interest in the Sandbox. It was downloaded over 40 million times. This made the developers show interest in another digital trend, that of NFTs.
The Sandbox as a blockchain project began in 2018. The goal was to create a 3D metaverse in which all actions revolve around a central monetary unit. The game’s native token is SAND. The game’s NFTs and various features all depend on the use of SAND. For example, territory in the game, known as LAND, is bought using SAND tokens.
These transactions are facilitated by smart contract technology carried out on the Ethereum network. These were used for The Sandbox’s early pre-sale of LAND. This ICO alternative proved monetarily successful. Evaluated at several hundred million dollars, the project is one of the best-known of its kind in the blockchain-game industry.
What is The Sandbox?
The Sandbox is a play-to-earn game that uses blockchain technology, DeFi, and NFTs. These are all used to create a virtual world. The world allows users to customize and create their digital assets and games with various in-game tools.
The Sandbox allows users to create and improve their characters, as well as interact with the aforementioned virtual world. The Sandbox, at its core, is a game where players can purchase digital real estate. This is called LAND. The game’s virtual goods can then be monetized using NFTs and sold on The Sandbox Marketplace for SAND tokens.
These items help create experiences that they share with others. The project, in this sense, is a model of a blockchain-based metaverse not dissimilar to Decentraland.
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Crypto-investors will also be interested in the game’s native token. This is called SAND. The token is needed to conduct any transactions in the game. In other words, users will require it to maneuver through the digital world. This model may be useful not just for gamers. Interested crypto investors can trade SAND on numerous popular exchanges such as Binance, or Kraken.
Core features
The Sandbox allows users to create a virtual world using non-fungible tokens. The game runs on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform helps users interact with the ecosystem by using Ethereum wallets that store their SAND tokens.
VoxEdit is a software tool used by Animoca to create 3D graphics for these virtual worlds. This software can be used in conjunction with blockchain-based constructions. To access different games, environments, and hubs in The Sandbox, players create their individual avatars. The game can be thought of as a DeFi version of Minecraft on the blockchain. In fact, the game’s origins lie in the attempt to mimic the game model used in Minecraft.
VoxEdit is a computer program that contains a modeler, an animator, and an NFT creator. This makes it a powerful tool to develop games of this kind. Voxels are the tiniest element of visual design. They are used to create the items that populate the world.
Using voxels and Game Maker tools, users can create their own items. They can then sell this in exchange for SAND. The Sandbox marketplace allows users to upload their creations. These creations are then registered on the Ethereum blockchain as ERC-1155 tokens.
Tokenization in The Sandbox
Tokenization allows creators and artists to create all kinds of items. This ultimately helps the ecosystem function. SAND is not the only token available. LAND token is proof of the ownership of a land parcel.
Assets are created by members of the community and traded into their respective LAND or SAND wallets. LAND tokens are non-fungible, while SAND tokens can be fungible. This means that, while each LAND token is unique in its own way, all SAND coins can be interchangeable and function the same as money.
Like other games, The Sandbox is based on a hybrid structure. Servers that enable the visualization of the virtual reality universe are executed in central servers. Meanwhile, the information related to the tokens, and collectibles, are stored in a decentralized blockchain network.
Comparison with competitors
Naturally, The Sandbox is the only or the first game of its kind. In 2022, “metaverse” is the buzzword in the crypto industry. Play-to-earn blockchain games have also earned a good deal of attention from the public. With this in mind, several games are looking to harness the potential, both technical and PR-related, of the metaverse.
First of all, The Sandbox, originally, was a direct competitor of the popular game Minecraft. The initial version of The Sandbox appeared in 2012. The current iteration hopes to be a Minecraft that utilizes crypto and NFTs’ potential.
However, The Sandbox’s biggest competitor is certainly Decentraland. This is a game with a similar real-estate theme. In Decentraland, users purchase plots using a LAND token. Users are also able to craft their own NFTs and sell them on the game’s market. Like The Sandbox, Decentraland runs on the Ethereum network. The game’s native token is MANA.
Upland is another blockchain game that uses the real estate theme. Users on Upland buy their own plots of land in a virtual world. This is a play-to-earn game. Here, similarly, users can trade their NFT plots for money. Upland uses UPX coins. The game runs on the EOS blockchain.
Roadmap and development history
The Sandbox as a crypto project was, essentially, started in 2018.
The project raised $3.41million from strategic investors like Square Enix, Hashed, and True Global Ventures. The Sandbox has secured more than 60 partnerships to create content on the platform. These include cartoon-related brands like Shaun the Sheep and Smurfs. The Sandbox also sparked the interest of famous game companies like ATARI.
Although the game was announced in 2018, its development phase was relatively slow. In 2019, glimpses of the game’s content were released to the public. That same year, The Sandbox held a LAND pre-sale and had a beta release for VoxEdit.
The alpha stage of Game Maker took place in 2020. By the end of 2021, The Sandbox was ready to release an alpha version of the multiplayer functionality. The play-to-earn seasons appeared at the tail end of the year.
In 2022, The Sandbox looks to progressively open up new metaverse features to owners of LAND. The launch of a DAO and virtual concerts will also take place this year. A mobile version of the game is due for release later in 2022.
By 2023, the platform will include over 5000 games according to the expectations of the developers. New NFT partnerships and additional LAND sales are due for the same period.
What is LAND?
The Sandbox game involves the ownership of LAND. The token allows users to access the platform’s version of the metaverse. Additionally, the token owners can use the token to customize their plot. When another user wishes to access their property, they will pay the owner a small sum of crypto as a kind of ticket.
The LAND token gives the owner rights over a plot of 96 × 96 meters in the game. These plots are combinable. Users can purchase numerous tokens. To obtain an ESTATE, a player can join multiple LANDs.
Essentially, the LAND token is an ERC-721 token that serves as a delimiter of ownership for an area of land within The Sandbox. The token is a way for players to make money from their gaming experience. Users can purchase them using SAND or ether (ETH), through public LAND sales. Users can also buy up LAND from other users via The Sandbox Marketplace or NFT platforms such as OpenSea
A player who acquires a LAND buys real estate in this virtual world. The information shows on the Ethereum blockchain. Just like in real life, there’s a limited amount of actual land that can be used. There will be only 166.464 LANDs. This makes them a rare commodity.
What is ASSETS?
The Sandbox prides itself on being a game that encourages its users’ creativity. Sure, the game offers the framework for the digital world, but it is the people who populate it. ASSETS are the NFTs created by the users. These can be used as valuable items inside the game. These NFTs can also be traded inside of the game’s marketplace, or external NFT marketplaces. Trading assets is a good way for a user to earn SAND.
ASSETS is an ERC-1155 token. It can be used to represent different elements within the game through voxels. The “voxel” is the smallest element used to create the items with which users interact in the game. These created NFTs could be an item of equipment that a character wears, your avatar or a digital pet that you place inside it.
The ASSETS are Voxel Assets that are created using VoxEdit. They are uploaded to The Sandbox Marketplace, where they are converted into NFTs. Several types of ASSETS exist based on their role. These are Entity, Equipment, and Block ASSETS. All of them, in combination, create the virtual world.
The SAND token
SAND is the native token of The Sandbox game. It acts as the central element throughout this metaverse. Any transactions between users use the token. The developers announced that 3 billion SAND will ever exist.
SAND is a utility token. It can be used to transact and interact with other users within The Sandbox ecosystem. It is required for all types of transactions. To play the game, modify their avatars, purchase LAND, or trade ASSETS, players must first own SAND.
SAND is also a governance token. Through a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), SAND holders can vote and propose changes to the platform.
Holders can also stake SAND in the game. They are incentivized with rewards. One such reward is a share of the revenue generated by all transactions in SAND tokens. Staking SAND can increase a user’s chances of finding valuable GEMs or CATALYSTs. These are game resources that allow users to create ASSETS with higher rarities.
You can also earn SAND by taking part in mini-games in The Sandbox. Finally, you can invest in SAND by purchasing it from cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance.
Tokenomics
The Sandbox is a complex game. The objective is to take part in a virtual world. All transactions use SAND, the game’s native token. This is an ERC-20 token. The entire game runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
Besides this, The Sandbox features several tokens with other kinds of uses. The LAND tokens represent ownership over plots of land. With ASSETS, users collect NFTs. It has in-game uses, and these are all ERC-721 tokens. Various other resources exist.
SAND tokens can also be staked to obtain more SAND as well as Gems and Catalysts. Catalysts, ERC-20 tokens, are used to define the scarcity in your ASSETS. Gems are also ERC-20 tokens. You can purchase them from other players.
The Sandbox covers the Ethereum gas fees for players. This makes it easier to use the platform. The Sandbox Foundation receives 50% of all SAND token transactions. This foundation supports the ecosystem through funding grants and promotion.
Price and price predictions
Naturally, general investors are always on the lookout for new, profitable investments. Could SAND be one of these? There are several factors that are worth considering.
First of all, SAND price depends on the game’s evolution. The Sandbox has been in the development stages for a few years. Only in 2022, the alpha version of many of its features has become available. Growing adoption should also help raise interest in the project.
The price grew steadily from its inception and reached its peak of around $6.3 in 2021. Recently, it has gathered up momentum. Recent developments have helped SAND grow back to a value of around $3.
Crypto experts predict that in 2022, the price of SAND could consolidate to a value of over $4. Of course, this evolution will depend largely on the mass adoption of the project.
The same experts hope that the rise in crypto projects will cause SAND to grow to $6 by the end of 2023, and hit nearly $9 by the end of next year. Of course, these evaluations are based on current data. Events may change. However, SAND has generally positive prospects.
Should you buy SAND?
The evolution of The Sandbox has followed a largely positive trend. The project tries to maintain the objectives listed in its whitepaper. Furthermore, it has partnered up with several high-profile companies and artists. There’s also the matter of the metaverse. The concept has proven very popular and has entered the collective mainstream.
If the market proves bullish for most cryptocurrencies, SAND should also benefit. As the game gains more adopters, the value of its native coin could rise. If all the elements listed in the project map are resolved, there is no reason why SAND couldn’t meet the most positive expectations for its price increase.
How to buy SAND
Sandbox’s token is available on a number of crypto exchanges:
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Purchasing SAND follows the standard steps involved in any other crypto purchase. Let’s take Binance as an example. A user will need to create an account with the crypto exchange. They will then need to have their account confirmed.
When their account is ready, they will need to visit the spot market and choose a crypto-pairing that includes LAND. They will then be able, for example, to trade USDT for LAND.
Once purchased, the users can keep the tokens in their exchange, or move them towards the game. In the game, they will be able to use LAND to purchase various NFTs.
How to stake SAND
The Sandbox users are able to stake their SAND in liquidity pools on the platform. Their rewards will be based on the amount that they have staked. The rewards are also multiplied based on the amount of LAND that they own. Furthermore, users can earn special NFTs through the staking program.
What is earned from the pool is then split between the foundation fund and the staking fund. The first offers a reward to the creators of the digital world, while the latter incentivizes those who are staking.
The Sandbox metaverse holds enormous potential
The term “metaverse” is certainly a buzzword within the tech world. Plenty of hype exists around this concept. Will the result live up to it? Certain aspects will almost be part of the digital world’s future. In some aspects, the metaverse is a natural continuation of a version of the web that includes blockchain technology in a greater manner.
The Sandbox is a project that offers a proof of concept of what the metaverse can resemble. The game has created its own economy, with its own currency, and users needing to interact to win prizes. It is not the only play-to-earn game developed on the blockchain. It is, however, among the first and the most popular.
Frequently asked questions
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